88 STORIES OF BIRD LIFE. 



or the West Indies. In ease and beauty of flight there are 

 few, if any, birds which equal this tireless privateer of the 

 ocean. Imagine a swallow with a long forked tail, and 

 wings whose sweep is seven and a half feet! Such is the 

 general appearance of the man-of-war. It is a bird of the 

 tropics and is a famous wanderer. Its wings bear it far 

 over the sea, and sometimes when fierce gales are raging 

 it may be seen at a great height many miles inland, floating 

 in circles about the sky. 



The bird has acquired its name from its wonderful 

 prowess as a pirate. Not only can it swiftly overtake other 

 winged inhabitants of the ocean, but its heavy hooked beak 

 is so formidable that a bird when chased will gladly yield 

 its recently captured prey to avoid a blow from the dreaded 

 weapon. The man-of-war's flight is accomplished with the 

 greatest ease imaginable. I remember seeing one, during 

 a heavy squall, swoop down and pick an object from the 

 waves as gracefully as a swallow might skim a summer 

 mill pond. 



An hour before sunset on the nineteenth of July, the 

 frigate birds, as they are often called, began to appear off 

 the mouth of Tampa Bay, and as the evening closed their 

 numbers increased. All were flying leisurely up the bay 

 toward Bird Key. They continued to pass until dark. 

 At dawn the next day I was in a small fishing boat 



